SAS founded in 2013 in Paris | http://linkurio.us | @linkurious

Visualizing an anti-money laundering investigation.

What is money laundering.

Money laundering is the process in which the proceeds of crime are transformed into ostensibly legitimate money or other assets.

The 3 steps of the money laundering process.

PlacementIntroducing cash into the financial system by some means.

LayeringCarrying out complex financial transactions to camouflage the illegal source

IntegrationAcquiring wealth generated from the transactions of the illicit funds

Criminals vs AML investigators.

Follow the trail of illegal money to convict criminal and seize assets.

Create a complex financial maze to obfuscate the trail of illegal money.

Thefraudsters

Theinvestigators

Graphs can help investigators fight money laundering.

Linkurious allows investigators to explore visually the information and to look for specific patterns. More results, faster.

The investigators can use visualization to communicate their findings. It helps collaboration and obtain convictions.

Working with data coming from various sources is complex. A graph allows you to link the events, persons or organizations together.

Track the relations

Find hidden insights

Communicate results

Graphs and data investigation.

Concrete example : scenario.

Who?As a specialized police investigator, we are tasked with investigating a criminal organization.

What?The leaders of the organization are Virginia Parker, Marilyn Meyer and Diane Lawson. They are suspected of running a large drug operation. All we have at the start of the investigation is that a known associate of the organization runs a small business called Tanoodle.

Why?The objective of the investigation is to map the money laundering scheme in order to secure the convictions of its perpetrators and seize their assets.

How?We are going to use graph visualization to represent the information captured via the investigation. It will help us target the suspects.

Concrete example : data.

ACME CorpCOMPANY

John SmithPERSON

ACCOUNT ACCOUNT

SENDS_TOHAS_ACCOUNT HAS_ACCOUNT

Discovering links from financial records.

Concrete example : a first suspicious company.

We are looking at Tanoodle, a company associated with the criminal organization. It is linked to a bank account.

The interface of Linkurious also makes it easy to explore and edit a graph.

Concrete example : first connection.

Via its bank account, Tannodle is connected to Avavee a company it transfers money to.

Concrete example : Avavee collects money.

The financial records of Avavee shows that it collects money from Avavee and 6 other companies.

That money is then funnel to two bank accounts (bottom right corner).

Concrete example : another hub of companies.

Connected to Avavee and the first hub of companies is another company called Youspan. It receives money from 5 companies and channels it to the same 2 bank accounts as Avavee.

Avavee and Youspan are the second layer of the money laundering scheme.

Concrete example : the third layer.

Further investigation, helps gather information about the two suspicious bank accounts. They are associated with two other companies called Digitube and Zava. It constitutes the third layer of the money laundering scheme.

Concrete example : the first three layers.

The first three layers of the money laundering scheme form a directed network.

Concrete example : the complete scheme.

By investigating Digitube and Zava, we are able to have a look at the complete money laundering network with 2 new companies and three people.

Concrete example : the leaders.

We are finally available to find the ultimate beneficiaries of the money laundering scheme. Time to make arrests and seize funds!

You can do it too!

Contact us to discuss your projects

contact@linkurio.us

Conclusion

Blog post on AML investigation : http://linkurio.us/investigating-a-money-laundering-scheme

Dataset used in the example : https://www.dropbox.com/s/4yxslaysaagf17o/aml%20dataset.zip?dl=0

Additional resources.